Dead Sea Scrolls: Apocryphal Texts

Congregants in the Presbyterian circles I run in tend to view apocryphal texts with fascination, suspicion, or a mixture of both. We are aware that other branches of Christianity accept books we do not, and that there are even more books beyond that which no major branch of Christianity accepts as authoritative, which are nevertheless out there. I find a couple of insights helpful here: First, a book might be helpful even if it is not canonical or authoritative (a point made by Article 6 of the 39 Articles). Second, we can think of many of these apocryphal works as commentaries – an analogy that comes from Greg Beale. They tell us how Jews of the time were thinking about the Bible, and they can even give us insightful interpretations of Scriptures we consider canonical. Such texts are in any case indispensable for understanding how Jews thought at the time of Jesus. They let us know how Jews at this time were reading the Bible, and they are often a helpful background for understanding the New Testament, especially for eliciting assumptions that lie behind arguments made by the apostles.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are especially helpful here. For one thing, they clarify the status of books of which we were already aware, like Enoch, Jubilees, or Tobit, showing that these books were around at the time of Jesus, available in Hebrew and Aramaic, and likely quite popular. It is no wonder that Jude in his letter cites Enoch, given how familiar many in his readership would be with it. The Dead Sea Scrolls also contain tantalizing fragments of other works that have not come down to us. Often it is difficult to fully understand there works, because of how much is missing. But the snatches we get can help form our understanding of the thought-world of Jesus’ time.

Here at the Museum of the Bible with this rotation of scrolls, we have fragments from the well-known books of Tobit and Jubilees, as well as a copy of an otherwise unknown text which may recount the backstory of Noah.

The book of Tobit is not considered canonical by Protestants, though it is by Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox traditions. It tells the story of Tobit, but most of it actually concerns his son Tobias, who journeys from home with his dog, and is aided by the angel Raphael in marrying the pious Sarah and defeating the demon that wishes to kill him. Tobit had been known in Latin and Greek for a long time, but was discovered in Aramaic and Hebrew fragments at Qumran. This challenges one traditional Protestant argument against canonicity: the claim that only Old Testament books written in Hebrew or Aramaic should be accepted, and books composed originally in Greek should be rejected. As it turns out, Tobit probably was composed originally in Hebrew or Aramaic.

Of interest to Protestants though will be the fact that the copies of Tobit found at Qumran side with the Greek versions of Tobit over against the Vulgate translation. In the Vulgate, Raphael explains to Tobit that he ought to wait three nights before sleeping with his bride, and that he ought to do so for the motivation of begetting children rather than lust. None of this material is present it the Greek versions, which simply include Raphael’s instructions for burning a fish to drive away the demon. Despite gaps in the Qumran manuscripts, the two copies that cover this part of the story seem to agree with the Greek – as well as a portion in the Greek where Raphael refers to Sarah as “beautiful,” which has been omitted in the Vulgate. The version of Tobit from the Dead Sea Scrolls is thus a little bit less stuffy about the possibilities of enjoying sex within marriage!

The book of Jubilees was an important re-telling of the book of Genesis. It is considered to be canonical by the Ethiopic Orthodox Church and Eritrean Orthodox Church, and a full copies of the book survive in the Ethiopic language Ge’ez. Many fragmentary copies of the Hebrew original were found at Qumran, demonstrating its importance for Jews at the time.

The fragment that is here contains portions of Jubilees 21:5-10. This episode records instructions from Abraham to his son Isaac about the correct methods for offering a sacrifice. Essentially, aspects of the Mosaic law regulating sacrifice are retrojected into the Abraham story. This is a wider pattern in interpretations of Abraham. It has been disturbing to readers that God does not explain much to Abraham in the brief written account of his story, so there has been a tendency to fill in the gaps, bringing Abraham’s story into line with later revelation by showing us that God did, of course, tell Abraham about all the things that become important for Moses and the later prophets.

This text describes the birth of a child, who some scholars identify with Noah, though there is no clear identification in what is left of the text. The text seems to give a physical description of the child at birth – he has red hair and some small moles. The text is unfortunately too fragmentary to figure out the significance of this. Other literature refers to Noah’s unusual appearance at birth. According to Enoch 106:2-3, which is partially attested at Qumran, Noah was born with a body “whiter than snow and redder than a rose,” with white hair, eyes that shined light, and he sang praises to God at birth. But this description does not really fit the details that remain in 4Q534.

Whether Noah or not, the child described will discover wisdom from “three books.” He is described as “the elect of God,” and those who oppose him will fail. Mentions of “water” and “the Watchers” (angels associated with the times of the flood in Enochite literature) tend to reinforce that we could be getting a version of Noah’s backstory here.